Reality TV has not killed the video star. Even though MTV shows videos only from like 3:30 to 4 am on the third Tuesday of every even-numbered month, the music video is alive and kicking, thanks in large part to the Web. To be sure, the notion of music-promos-as-art is stronger than ever, as the Museum of Fine Arts’ annual “Mirrorball” series attests, four programs from the Edinburgh Film Festival. Among the highlights from the opener, “Fresh Tracks” (see www.mfa.org for the complete schedule): Tom Kuntz’s video for Bumblebeez’ “Dr. Love,” which is as hilarious as it is visually dazzling; Patrick Daughters’s promo for Feist’s “My Moon My Man,” which has the best synchronized dancing I’ve ever seen carried out on an airport moving walkway; and a few gems from San Francisco duo Encyclopedia Pictura including their eye-popping video for Grizzly Bear’s “Knife.” Museum of Fine Arts: January 30 + March 9

Persian gulf Another “Festival of Films from Iran” opens at the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Bush Administration still hasn’t started bombing Tehran.

Holiday, it would be so nice! The Museum of Fine Arts offers a full-out festive immersion approach to the impending holidays this year — a line of attack that, in keeping with the contemporary spirit of art, embraces performing arts, multimedia, and site-specific.

Show fetish Ever since Salvatore Ferragamo designed the first stiletto heel in 1955, podiatrists have faced a steady stream of female patients seeking physical relief from their devotion to fashion over function.

Break on through (to the other side) Rachel Perry Welty sees art where many of us see annoying little things to be thrown away or deleted: the funny-shaped plastic tabs cleverly invented to close the bag around a loaf of bread; the identifying stickers found on most fruit; answering-machine messages left at wrong numbers.

In the pines Jose’s unapologetically no-frills style is all about the pathetically triumphant moment of restraint that stops you from drunk dialing an ex.

Our town After living through decades of Big Dig construction and disruption, the average Bostonian has developed a keener design knowledge and sensitivity.

Gods and monsters — and David Hasselhoff The Museum of Fine Arts did big things with Napoleon and Edward Hopper, pictures of prostitutes graced the walls of Boston’s two biggest art museums, and all hell broke loose when the Mooninites invaded.

Flora, fauna, and the female figure The Art Nouveau movement of the late-19th/early-20th century distanced itself from the mass production of the Industrial Revolution with elaborate, one-of-a-kind works made from unusual materials.

Anat, Elvis, and Jenny In the wake of a single solo album on her own label in 2005, Anat Cohen is suddenly everywhere.

WORLDS COLLIDE | February 03, 2009 A week ago Wednesday and Thursday, a curious collection of young scruffy indie kids and older scruffy MIT eggheads converged on the school's Broad Institute for two nights of free music, art, and lecture dubbed "Darkness Visible."

GONE, BABY, GONE | January 09, 2009 Boston bids farewell to one of its brightest spots — the row of six diverse and delectable restaurants on Peterborough Street that were consumed by a four-alarm fire early Tuesday morning.

A FLAIR FOR THE DRAMA | January 09, 2009 "There's not enough hype in the world for Glasvegas," old reliable hypemonger NME recently proclaimed. But that doesn't mean the magazine and the rest of the British music press aren't trying.

FANS CHEER; EARTH WEEPS | August 19, 2008 It’s a bummer that the four-plus hours I spent in my car feeling guilty about barfing loads of carbon into the air is most salient in my mind, because, as always, Radiohead delivered an awe-inspiring show.

LAUGH AT THE END OF THE WORLD | August 19, 2008 The two guys who make up Clawjob have an unnerving tendency to describe something as funny when it’s anything but.